This invention relates to a stactometric apparatus for automatically measuring the amount of a medicinal solution to be instilled into the human body or a unit time amount of coeliac urine drawn off therefrom.
Measurement of a unit time amount of coeliac urine gives data on many physiological facts such as the circulatory function, the amount of a coeliac fluid, the metabolic function and the kidney function. Particularly, a unit time urine amount of 0.5 or 1 ml/hr kg (as measured per kg of the body weight of an examinee) is regarded as a very important indication in diagnosing the physiological condition of a patient. The above-mentioned data on the coeliac urine is effectively utilized in the early discovery and medical treatment of, for example, kidney insufficiency. The ureter is known to make a peristaltic motion in a brief period of time as 1 to 4 times per minute. On the other hand the kidney makes different actions during the daytime and nighttime; and further has its action intricately varied by the degree of metabolism or the amount of material resulting from the decomposition of cells or the level of blood pressure. One clue to the analysis of complicated relationships between the kidney function and the associated factors is to trace dynamic changes in the unit time quantity of coeliac urine. An attempt for the detailed analysis of the kidney function has made possible dialysis suited for a patient's physiological condition in medical treatment, for example, by an artifical kidney, thereby helping to elevate the function of the artificial kidney. Such attempt greatly assists in the early discovery and medical treatment of kidney diseases such as kidney insufficiency.
To date, the unit time quantity of coeliac urine has almost always been artificially measured. Namely, the coeliac urine has been conducted out of, for example, a patient's body through a urethral catheter to be measured per unit time by means of, for example, a messcylinder. Thus, the unit time quantity (ml/hr. kg) of coeliac urine has been calculated per kg of the body weight of a patient from the result of the measurement. Further, sometimes the unit time quantity of coeliac urine or the total amount thereof during a prescribed period of time has been recorded by means of an exclusive stactometric cylinder. However, the above-mentioned conventional coeliac urine-measuring process which involves the sampling of the urine, the measurement of its collected quantity and the calculation of the unit time urine quantity per kg of the body weight of a patient has involved a heavy work load on the analyzer. Further, the customary coeliac urine-measuring practice fails to be carried out automatically or continuously, and can not detect minute changes in the unit time quantity of coeliac urine. These difficulties make it impossible to fully indicate the unit time, quantity of a patient's coeliac urine, thus undesirably delaying the application of a proper medical treatment to the patient. Further, where a medicinal solution is instilled into the patient's body, the unit time quantity of the solution has been controlled simply by eye measurement, failing to correctly determine the unit time quantity of a medical solution being instilled.